rathi

Reporter Arrested on Orders of Giuliani Press Secretary

This is quite disturbing. The press secretary just point at a guy and he gets arrested on trumped up charges and removed from the conference? He was charged with trespassing even though he had the press pass and the CNN people asked him to stay. Matt Lepacek maybe a little wacky with 9/11 conspiracies, but that is no excuse to have him falsely arrested. I hope the press secretary and the police get hammered with such a blatant violation of the 1st amendment.

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He'd be right at home on some ancient battlefield, swinging an axe into somebody's face.

Kasmos

This is absolutely atrocious. Arresting a man (a reporter I might add legally allowed to be there) because he asked a "touchy" question is downright horrible. What is this country coming to if this kind of action is not looked down upon?

I'm waiting to here people "support" this decision

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oldreliable67

Watching the video link, my impression is that the Giuliani spokesperson was correct when he referred to Lepacek's so-called questioning as a "sabatoge attempt". Lepacek wasn't really interested in answers, he was only interested in making a nuisance of himself and thereby getting himself noticed. Sophomoric and stupid. Much like the shouting down of speakers in college venues when their pov isn't the same as yours. Just my opinion. YMMV.

Kasmos

What, asking questions that are "touchy" and could cause some interesting responses is a "sabatoge attempt"? Arresting people for practicing their 1st Amendment rights is wrong, no matter how you look at it.

AndrewC

http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/..._families.html

Sounds about his speed.

Kasmos

Seems to be a trend in America nowadays. If you don't agree with the ideas of a politician, and you express your 1st amendment rights, they'll send the police on you.

oldreliable67

Again, just my impression of the specifics shown on the vid...

The questions and the questioner went way beyond being "touchy". The aggressiveness and in-your-face tactics used by Lepacek were not those of a reporter seeking responses to difficult questions. They were the well-known tactics of a demonstrator at a confrontation with an authority figure, pressing for and seeking a response that would be video-taped and permit him to claim victim status. In this, he succeeded.

Let me clarify and be clear: Even though I deplore his tactics, you are quite right that arresting Lepacek was wrong, both for the reasons you mentioned as well as tactical from a campaign viewpoint. The Giuliani representative erred tremendously and played right into Lepacek's hands. A more appropriate response in this situation would have been to acknowledge Lepacek's questions and then assert his opinion of them as a form of heckling, perhaps offer to meet with him after the press conference so as to stay with the published agenda for the meeting (recall that Lepacek wanted the G. rep to go over to a seat and watch their video, which he said would take, IIRC, "about 20 minutes" - clearly not something for which the G. rep should interrupt the meeting). Subsequently, should Lepacek have continued to press his agenda, the G. rep should have ignored Lepacek or at the most, reminded him of his offer to meet with him afterwards. Perhaps not a perfect response, but better than winding up giving Lepacek a valuable PR tool.

Kasmos

Very nice post, I understand your point of view now.

Doremus Jessup

This is f@ckin' disgusting! Good thing we only have another year and a half, at the most hopefully, of stories like this. More proof that POS "republicans" actually respect and uphold the Constitution.

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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

oldreliable67

You surely don't believe this kind of ineptness is solely the province of one party or the other?